1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for authenticating a node requesting another node to perform work on behalf of yet another node.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a network backup environment, a client system may backup data in a storage device and coordinate the backup with a backup server. For instance, the International Business Machines (“IBM”®) Tivoli® Storage Manager product provides software for a client and server systems to backup client data. (IBM and Tivoli are registered trademarks of IBM).
In a backup environment of multiple client nodes, one client node may logon to the backup server to perform backup operations on behalf of another node having data sets to backup, which may be part of a scheduled backup. To schedule a backup operation, a backup operation may be scheduled for one node to backup data sets in an attached storage at that node or a set of backup operations may be defined and associated with nodes to perform the scheduled backup. In the second technique, a schedule is defined and nodes are associated with that schedule.
In one system, an administrator user at a Web browser may contact nodes one at a time and authenticate with the server through these nodes to have the nodes perform backup related tasks. This process is called passthrough authentication and requires that the administrator at the Web browser have authority over these nodes in order to authenticate through them to the server. The administrator at the Web browser enters their credentials at the web browser, which are then submitted to the server through the node.